The issue of requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote is rearing it's ugly head in Colorado once again. Each year in the legislature, a bill of this sort comes up at least once. And each year, we at Common Cause work hard to defeat the bill because we believe in removing barriers to our voting process, not adding them. But this year, El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Bob Balink is taking a different approach.
If the state is going to require that people be U.S. citizens in order to vote, then it should allow election officials to verify that citizenship, Balink argues.
But if the state doesn't want to require a check of citizenship, then the law shouldn't even mention the word in its definition of eligibility. It would make sense, Balink says, to remove it.
But Balink doesn't want to remove the requirement. He just wants to be able to check for citizenship. Or else,he says, "How can I be sure I'm following the law?"
Balink belives that if the legislature won't pass a bill requiring proof of citizenship, a lawsuit would force the issue.
Those who believe that we should require proof of citizenship claim it's not that difficult to obtain the proof, and you would only have to do it once. An editorial in this week's
Denver Post says:
Proving citizenship isn't as easy as proving identity. A driver's license or state ID card works to prove you are who you say you are. But a passport, or a birth certificate accompanied by a current photo ID, is necessary to prove citizenship.
Inconvenient, perhaps, but not onerous. Proof of identity would have to be shown only once, when a voter registers for the first time. There wouldn't be any requirement to establish citizenship for each new election. Voters would not have to show up at their polling places with passports and birth certificates.
To say that proving citizenship is not onerous is wrong. It is expensive and time-cosuming, not to mention infringing on our basic voting rights. The citizenship requirement is aimed at illegal immigrants and discouraging them from voting. But, there is little to no evidence of voter fraud in Colorado.
This is a solution in search of a problem.
The possibility of having to bring even more identification to the polls is going to discourage people from voting. In a democracy where voting is a fundamental right, we should be passing laws that make it easier to vote, not harder.
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